The art of 18th and 19th century, found in thousands of books and magazines, has largely been lost to time. Block prints, and pen and ink ruled across periodicals world wide. But over time much of this art has vanished or even worse is overlooked as antiquated and outdated compared to todays slick multicolored art.
I had a fascination with these pieces of art and set about collecting dozens of books containing them. As I learned how to be a good artist I decided to teach myself how to adapt some of these pieces and turn them into full color surrealism. I learned about using color to create emotions and how those colors change the emotions of the piece. I learned how to take a very common scene and turn it to illusion and magic. It was lessons well learned as I continued my journey as an artist.
I've included here both the original and the finished art so you can compare. Some of these pieces were taken from old and moldering wall prints or oversized journals, so scanning them in took doing so in pieces and then matching them back together to create the art.
I still pick up books that have prints within them, so this series is open ended and I add to it on occasion. Make sure you look at the fine details. Many of the changes are small.
No comments:
Post a Comment